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Source at https://vkm.no/

Source at https://vkm.no/.

Source at https://vkm.no/ At request from the Norwegian Food Safety Authority (NFSA), VKM has identified food groups and food items consumed by the Norwegian population that are relevant for monitoring regarding content of one or more undesirable chemical substances (Figure 1). Undesirable chemical substances were defined as chemical substances in food that may constitute a potential health risk. VKM has created a knowledge base (an Excel file) as a tool for planning and prioritising monitoring of foods and undesirable chemical substances. The substance groups included in the knowledge base are flavourings, food additives, metals and metalloids, natural toxins, persistent organic pollutants, process-induced contaminants, substances in food contact materials, substances in food supplements, and trace elements. More than 40 different substances were included.

At request from the Norwegian Food Safety Authority (NFSA), VKM has identified food groups and food items consumed by the Norwegian population that are relevant for monitoring regarding content of one or more undesirable chemical substances (Figure 1). Undesirable chemical substances were defined as chemical substances in food that may constitute a potential health risk. Paid open access

The Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food and Environment (VKM) initiated this work to examine the extent to which organisms developed by genome-editing technologies pose new challenges in terms of risk assessment. This report considers whether the risk assessment guidance on genetically modified organisms, developed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), can be applied to evaluate potential risks of organisms developed by genome editing. Background Gene technology has allowed for the transfer of genes between organisms and species, and thereby to design altered genotypes with novel traits, i.e. GMOs. A new paradigm started in the early 2000s with the development of genome-editing techniques. Unlike traditional genetic modification techniques resulting in insertion of foreign DNA fragments at random locations in the genome, the new genome-editing techniques additionally open for a few single nucleotide edits or short insertions/deletions at a targeted site in an organism’s genome. These new techniques can be applied to most types of organisms, including plants, animals and microorganisms of commercial interest. An important question is how the novel, genome-edited organisms should be evaluated with respect to risks to health and the environment. The European Court of Justice decided in 2018 to include genome-edited organisms in the GMO definition and hence in the regulatory system already in place. This implies that all products developed by genome-editing techniques must be risk-assessed within the existing regulatory framework for GMOs. The European and Norwegian regulatory frameworks regulate the production, import and placing on the market of food and feed containing, consisting of or produced from GMOs, as well as the release of GMOs into the environment. The assessment draws on guidance documents originally developed by EFSA for risk assessment of GMOs, which were drawn up mainly to address risks regarding insertion of transgenes. The new genome-editing techniques, however, provide a new continuum of organisms ranging from those only containing a minor genetic alteration to organisms containing insertion or deletion of larger genomic regions. Risk assessment of organisms developed by genome editing The present discourse on how new genome-editing techniques should be regulated lacks an analysis of whether risk assessment methodologies for GMOs are adequate for risk assessment of organisms developed through the use of the new genome-editing techniques. Therefore, this report describes the use of genome-editing techniques in food and feed production and discusses challenges in risk assessment with the regulatory framework. Specifically, this report poses the question as to whether the EFSA guidance documents are sufficient for evaluating risks to health and environment posed by genome-edited plants, animals and microorganisms. To address these questions, the report makes use of case examples relevant for Norway. These examples, intended for food and feed, include oilseed rape with a modified fatty acid profile, herbicide-tolerant and pest-resistant crops, sterile salmon, virus-resistant pigs and hornless cattle. The report considers all aspects of the stepwise approach as described in the EFSA guidance documents. Conclusions The inherent flexibility of the EFSA guidance makes it suitable to cover health and environmental risk assessments of a wide range of organisms with various traits and intended uses. Combined with the embedded case-by-case approach the guidance is applicable to genome-edited organisms. The evaluation of the guidance demonstrates that the parts of the health and environmental risk assessment concerned with novel traits (i.e. the phenotype of the organism) may be fully applied to all categories of genome-edited organisms. ............

The Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food and Environment (VKM) initiated this work to examine the extent to which organisms developed by genome-editing technologies pose new challenges in terms of risk assessment. This report considers whether the risk assessment guidance on genetically modified organisms, developed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), can be applied to evaluate potential risks of organisms developed by genome editing.

Additional file 1: Figure S1. Quantification of bacterial 16S rRNA gene in different sample types using qPCR. Since the Cq values of most mucosa-associated samples were out of the linear range of the standard curve, the Cq value was used as a proxy of 16S rRNA gene quantity which is reliable for the screening of contaminant sequences. Data are presented as mean ± 1 standard deviation overlaying the raw data points. Abbreviations: REF, reference diet; IM, insect meal diet; DID, distal intestine digesta; DIM, distal intestine mucosa. Figure S2. Taxonomic profile of the mock (A) and contaminating features in the negative controls (B). The lowest level of taxonomic ranks was displayed for each taxon. EB, extraction blank; LB, library blank. Figure S3. Microbial clades showing significant associations with sample origin. p__, phylum; o__, order; f__, family; FDR, false discovery rate; N.not.zero, number of non-zero observations; REF, reference diet; IM, insect meal diet. Figure S4. Microbial clades showing significant associations with diet. p__, phylum; o__, order; f__, family; FDR, false discovery rate; N.not.zero, number of non-zero observations; REF, reference diet; IM, insect meal diet. Figure S5. Microbial clades showing significant associations with histological scores on lamina propria cellularity in the distal intestine. p__, phylum; f__, family; FDR, false discovery rate; N.not.zero, number of non-zero observations. Figure S6. Microbial clades showing significant associations with distal intestine somatic index (DISI). FDR, false discovery rate; N.not.zero, number of non-zero observations. Figure S7. Microbial clades showing significant associations with immune gene expressions in the distal intestine. Since the expression levels of immune genes were highly correlated, we ran a principle component analysis (PCA) and used the first principle component (PC1) for the association testing to avoid multicollinearity and reduce the number of association testing. Note that the expression levels of immune genes decrease as the PC1 increases from left to right. Hence, a positive correlation coefficient denotes a negative association between the microbial clade and immune gene expressions, and vice versa. f__, family; FDR, false discovery rate; N.not.zero, number of non-zero observations. Figure S8. Microbial clades showing significant associations with expressions of barrier function related genes in the distal intestine. Since the expression levels of barrier function related genes were highly correlated, we ran a principle component analysis (PCA) and used the first principle component (PC1) for the association testing to avoid multicollinearity and reduce the number of association testing. Note that the expression levels of barrier function related genes decrease as the PC1 increases from left to right. Hence, a positive correlation coefficient denotes a negative association between the microbial clade and barrier function related gene expressions, and vice versa. f__, family; FDR, false discovery rate; N.not.zero, number of non-zero observations. Figure S9. Rarefaction curves based on Observed ASVs for the different sample types. The rarefaction analysis showed that mucosa samples (REF-DIM, IM-DIM) reached the saturation phase at a subsampling depth of 2000 sequences whereas digesta samples (REF-DID, IM-DID) reached the saturation phase at a subsampling depth of 9500 sequences. To preserve a maximum number of samples for the downstream data analysis, we rarefied the ASV table to 2047 sequences per sample which left out 2 samples. To ensure that the subsampling depth of 2047 sequences per sample produced reliable comparisons of microbial communities, we computed compositionality-aware distance matrices, the Aitchison distance and PHILR transformed Euclidean distance, which do not require rarefying and use all the sequences in the samples.

The Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food and Environment (VKM) initiated this work to examine the extent to which organisms developed by genome-editing technologies pose new challenges in terms of risk assessment. This report considers whether the risk assessment guidance on genetically modified organisms, developed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), can be applied to evaluate potential risks of organisms developed by genome editing.

Rognkjeks har et velutviklet tarmsystem, men pH i magen faller først ved 1,0-1,5 gram. Rognkjeksen bør derfor tilbys agglomerert eller kaldekstrudert fôr fram til denne størrelsen. Fôr med 55 % protein, 17 % fett og 6 % karbohydrat ga raskest vekst, mens høyere og lavere proteinnivå ga suboptimal immunrespons. Høyt nivå av fett i fôret ga høyt nivå av fett i lever, muskel og i blindtarmene. Rognkjeks har høy kapasitet til å fordøye fett, medium kapasitet for protein, og lav for karbohydrater. Det kan være nødvendig å tilsette mer kolin i fôrene for å bedre transporten av fett fra tarm til lever og kropp. Veksten kan til en viss grad styres ved å bytte fett mot karbohydrater, men konsekvensen av ulik kroppssammensetning bør undersøkes. Behovet for vitamin C er trolig høyere enn for laks (>360 mg/kg), mens behovet for andre mikronæringsstoffer tilsvarer behovet hos andre arter. Ekstra antioksidanter reduserte alvorlighetsgraden av katarakt noe. Finjustering av vitamin C, vitamin E og astaxantin og andre antioksidanter og utvalgte mineraler er nødvendig. Den høye forekomsten av katarakt i prosjektet tyder på en bør tenke nytt i forhold til fôrsammensetning for rognkjeks, bl.a. undersøke om mindre næringstette fôr gir bedre osmoregulering og dermed mindre katarakt. The aim of this study was to provide new knowledge about nutritional needs of the cleaner fish species ballan wrasse and lumpfish.